Ok! I am dredging up all of my files from my old pseudonym account: Ducky Duchess. I just realized that I am not going to look at those things, and so Im never going to update. So, all of the stories from there are being transferred here. Except the Alternate Entries. No one seemed to enjoy those...
SO! Here is "The Truth."
It was dim in the LEP storage room, the air smelling of old paper and folders. The unit was massive with aisles and aisles of boxes stacked high upon metal shelves.
The time had to be around two in the morning for Haven, but Captain Holly Short sat in the middle of two aisles, lost in some old records as much as she was lost in the enormous room.
Even if she wanted to, Miss Short probably wouldn't be getting any sleep that week. She wasn't on assignment, but anyone kidnapped and held ransom-even trained LEP Captains-can't keep their wits about them. It felt as though her nerves were on fire, jumping about and causing her to never close her eyes; not even to blink.
However, her reason for being in the storage unit wasn't just solely based on Artemis Fowl. No, part of that reason she was sitting on the cold, cement floor in the dark was because of her mother.
With everything that happened to Holly with homosapiens, the elf wanted to look over her mother's own files. However, being suspended from her work temporarily, she couldn't get to the files on an electronic device. Hence the reason why she had to shuffle through hundreds of thousands of files. It wasn't too hard to find her family records. Thank Frond, the fairies who organized them actually know their Gnommish alphabet.
At this moment, Holly was reading over her mother's incident with humans. However, she had the boxes of records containing her family history surrounding her like a little kid and a bunch of cardboard bricks. Apparently, when you descend from one of the original Gods, you have a lot of distant relatives. Especially the God of Love.
Holly exhaled forcefully before dropping the file onto the ground and leaning back into the metal shelves behind her. What the hell am I doing here? She thought to herself, looking up at the ceiling high above her. I should be trying to get over this whole human thing...Not indulge myself into my fears. The elf got to her feet, going to move all the boxes around her to their original shelves when something caught her eye.
A file, sticking out from one of the boxes she hadn't touched yet. Holly cocked her head to the side before crouching down and looking at it closer. It was a dark shade of red, marked that way to show it was important.
That shade of red-if the Captain wasn't mistaken-also meant "Top Secret."
But that wasn't the most intriguing thing about the file that Holly was staring at with enormous, wide eyes. What made her heart speed up in her chest and stomach clench inside her was the label on the side, sticking out further than any of the file so that Fairies could read it.
"Holly Short, Birth Records"
Holly reached down, her hands shaking slightly. A million questions went through her mind as she snatched up the unique folder.
Why are my records Top Secret?
Why does it not have a layer of dust covering it, like the others….Almost as though it had been open recently…
What does this file say?
A normal elf, especially in the LEP and such a high status as herself, would know that Fairies are not allowed to access such papers. However, her curiosity got the better of the elf and resulted in her opening the folder.
Upon the opening, Miss Short almost expected the Artemis Fowl records to be in there. She half hoped they were and that the file was misplaced and mislabelled. However, her heart as her Birth Certificate was in there.
Holly was thoroughly confused, looking behind the one piece of information to find the back of the file folder. She stared at the parchment, not sure why it was there. Maybe it was misplaced…
That was when her eyes roamed to the bottom of the the single sheet, reading as she went down. However, upon reading one of the last few items on the record, the elf's eyes widened and a soft gasped emitted from her throat.
Forget the slight trembling before, Holly was quaking so hard now she dropped the folder to the ground. The elf covered her her face with her hands, not sure whether to cry or not. In her mind, Holly kept repeating: That can't be true, this is not happening. That can't be true, this is not happening. That can't be…
Holly spent hours like that, shaking violently as she sat on the floor. She switched from crying into her hands to staring across at the other shelf adjacent to her, unmoving, dead, emotionless eyes. A while went by where she thought there were no more tears in her body, but she was still too shocked to move...or do anything.
It was midday by the time a single sigh came from the elf and her glassy eyes calloused. The time for crying and worrying was over. Now, Holly was pissed.
In one fluent motion, Holly got up and grabbed the paper from where it was on the ground. She purposefully kept her eyes away from it, folding it in half.
Leaving the storage room, the elf finally got an idea of what time it was. Fairies of all kinds and ranks were running around, some carrying stacks of boxes almost as tall as them.
With a single shake of her head, Holly dismissed this, walking quickly and quietly around the rushed fairies to get where she was going. Her heart pounding in her chest the entire way.
"Wait, you have to have an appoint-!" She heard Lili Frond call from behind her, but Holly ignored the fairy. She cut the over glossy elf off by slamming the door shut behind her.
"Short, what are you doing here? You're suspended until further notice, remember?" Root greeted, only glancing at the elf before returning to the work laid out in front of him. "Well?" He asked, after a moment of complete silence. Root looked up and quirked an eyebrow. "What's wrong? Is it Fowl?"
"What the Frond d'arvitting hell is this?!" The words burst out of her before she had a chance to think. But oh, how good they felt to get out of her system. Holly walked menacingly to his desk and slammed the piece of paper on her desk.
Even Root's eyes went wide as he unfolded the paper and saw what it was. "How do you have this?" Was the one question that came out of his mouth.
"I was looking up humans and pulled my family history." She shook her head. "I shouldn't be explaining myself to you, you should be explaining what the hell this is to me!"
The Commander sighed as he grasped the arms of his chair and pushed himself up. "You need to calm down and take a seat." He walked around his desk and got a cup of water from a container on the other side of the room. However, when he turned back around to face the Captain, she was still standing...and fuming.
"Why would I calm down or even listen to you? I've just spent hours in the storage room alone, wondering if these documents are real. Wondering…" She looked away from him and back at the certificate laying on the desk. "Wondering if you really are my father."
Root exhaled as he sat down in a chair right next to the one Holly was standing in front of, putting the cup of water on the table in between them. "The files are correct. However, that does not give you an excuse to dig through Top Secret files."
"I think it does when the file has your very name on the label." She glared at the elf in front of her. Then the information that he had just said finally processed into her brain, causing Holly to sit down involuntary into the chair behind her; shocked. "How…"
"Coral and I knew each other in the LEP, right when she was getting out of the Academy. I was a Captain at the time, much like you." He smiled, looking down with sad eyes. "Your mother was beautiful...So light-hearted. She always believed the best in everyone, even with this job. We started to go out and then…" He gestured to her, and Holly scoffed, looking away.
"I kind of figured that had to happen." She mumbled.
"Well, when your mother informed me about you, we were excited for a bit. Then, the two of us realized that we couldn't be in the LEP like that. Coral and I weren't partnered together...And you know how the Council is with...Well, everything LEP related. We faked one of the Certificates for the Council to have and I wanted that one shredded, but Coral wouldn't let me. She believed that there would need to be a time for you to need proof we weren't lying to you."
Holly's heart clenched inside of her, hearing about her mother. This was like reliving her death all over again. She pushed away the thoughts, "What about…" She rolled her eyes at just the thought, everything just starting to confuse her. "What about the man that I've thought was my father my entire life?"
"A few years after you were born, Coral partnered with Clarence. Of course, I wasn't okay with it, but what else could I do? My promotion to become Commander was just within my reach and with your mothers rank and how I outranked her...Everyone would have thought I was giving her special treatment." Root got up, looking around. "Clarence agreed to not tell you until Coral and I were ready. Until you were."
"Did you promote me to Capt-"
"No." He looked down at her in speculation. "You got your promotion because you deserved it. The Council brought it up first." He let out a single, breathless chuckled. "It is, however, why I'm so hard on you. In fact, the only time I let my heart get ahead of me for you was...Probably Artemis Fowl. Protecting you was my number one priority." He knelt down, grabbing her hands, "You're all grown up now and...I am proud of you, don't think I'm not. Your mother, however, would be ecstatic of what you have accomplished. Fowl or not."
Holly nodded sadly, not sure how to respond as the icy numbness was still thawing inside of her. "Why didn't you tell me the truth...When she died?"
"I thought it was too late then. You were already hurt, and I didn't want the image of Coral tainted for you."
"Then my father died and you still kept quiet? I had no one." She looked at him incredulously and shook her head. Holly pulled her hands out of his grip.
Root looked at her sadly, "Short...Like I said, it was too late. I made the wrong decision by keeping this from you, I know. I kept putting off telling you, reminding myself the next time you walked through the door...I would just blurt it out. Ironically enough, I just didn't have the courage."
Holly stood up, Julius following suit as Holly walked to the door, too stunned. "What am I going to do now? I can't work here...Not without thinking that you are going soft on me." She didn't look at him as she faced the door.
"I was going to tell you at the end of the week...But there is an opening for a Commander of Field and Operation. You would be working beside me, equal rank. I was going to give the promotion to you anyway. You would have field work and be able to go to the surface. Have your own team." He paused before asking, "What do you think, Holly?"
"I'll think about it." Was her only response as she put her hand on the handle. A pause was in the air for a moment before Holly took a deep breath. "D'arvit…" Was all that was said before she flung herself back across the room, embracing Root.
With very slow, stunned hesitation, Root wrapped his arms around Holly. "That was the first time you called me by my first name." He heard by his ear.
A sigh of relief came from Julius' mouth. "We're going to work this out." He pulled away and smiled at Holly. "I should have just told you the truth from the beginning. I am deeply sorry."
Holly smiled back. "I get it, I think. Still numb about it. But...Thank you."
Okz! So! Tell me what you think! Flames are accepted, of course. Some of my M stories should be up in a few days as well! Thank you! REVIEW!